The transmission of video data requires great bandwidths. According to the SXGA (Super Extended Graphics Array) Standard, frames are generated, for example, with a resolution of 1280×1024 pixels with 24 bits per pixel and with a frame rate of 60 Hz. A serial video data stream for transmission of said frames has a data rate of about 2.59 GBit/s. Therefore, a data link for transmitting such a video data stream needs to have a bandwidth of about 1.3 GHz. In particular, for transmission of such video data streams over long distances, for example, from host computers to remote terminals, however, a bandwidth of this size is often not available.
In order to avoid this problem, it is known to compress video data prior to transmission, for example, by means of the MPEG algorithm. MPEG allows efficient data compression, but leads to information losses in the video data. For certain applications, such information losses are unacceptable. By way of example, reference is made herein to the use of remote terminals in industrial environments serving to control and monitor machines. On such terminals, inter alia, measurement data of machines are displayed which require a high resolution. By compression of the video data transmitted to said remote terminals, important details of the measurement data to be displayed could be lost.